
By Mike Metz on in Agency Life & Leadership
Don’t wait until you need it. Build your talent network today (and every day).
Anybody in marketing has been there. You get an RFP and you’re a 98% perfect fit—except for one obscure or unexpected skill set. For us, several years ago, it was the need to be able to translate conversational English into Canadian French (a competency I can assure you we have today). These requests can send you scrambling, hoping to find someone who isn’t just capable, but reliable and a good fit for your culture and your team.
We got lucky with our French-fluent partner, and have continued to work with them long past that initial ask. But we learned an important lesson: The time to try to lock in talent isn’t when you’re on the clock—it’s something you need to be thinking about every single day.
I’ve talked before about how creating and nurturing partnerships isn’t something that comes naturally for me. It took concerted effort, a plan and a schedule. It’s paid off, with an always-growing community of talent, partnerships and friendships that’s been great not just for FATFREE, but for me personally. And besides having people we can tap at a moment’s notice, we’ve been able to jump in to save the day on other companies’ projects when they don’t have the technical or digital strategy skills they need.
The time to try to lock in talent isn’t when you’re on the clock—it’s something you need to be thinking about every single day.
If you want to get out of your comfort zone to create a robust, expansive talent pool and partner network, feel free to follow my lead:
- Put it on the calendar. How many people have you been “meaning” to reach out to? Between distributed networks and work from home, you can’t count on running into someone in a coffee shop anymore. So I dedicate time in my schedule to calling people. It’s not just to remind them that we’re here—I genuinely want to know how they’re doing, what they’re learning and what they’ve been up to.
- Look beyond what people can do for you. I don’t think the network works if you’re just being opportunistic. That’s not how I operate anyway, but if you’re just thinking about what’s in it for you, the relationships won’t last. It has to be a two-way street. What’s more, don’t discount people because you think they don’t offer your business any value. You never know when you need to call a mechanical engineer or a nurse to explain something or a specialty food store to source props for a shoot.
- It’s not enough to “be on” LinkedIn. LinkedIn is great for knowing what people are up to and identifying potential partners, but you can’t be passive about it. Some people’s networks can be pretty flimsy and a 3rd-degree connection isn’t exactly an endorsement. If a connection of a connection looks like someone you may want to bring into a project, you have to go the next step and turn that into a relationship. On the flip side, being active on LinkedIn keeps FATFREE on people’s radars, too.
An amazing talent pool and partnerships with other specialist firms have been key to our 16-year success story, so I’d be remiss if I signed off without noting that if you’re looking for a digital partner, you should absolutely contact FATFREE today.